Annihilation
by krdurin
Summary: Thanos annihilated half of all living beings, leaving the survivors to pick up the pieces. No one feels the rage, despair and failure quite like our remaining heroes on the front line of the blood shed. A collection of very small one-shots focusing on each Avenger who survived the snap. Lots of angst, lots of feels.
1. Nebula

_Nebula_

"He did it." Her words seemed foreign, unfamiliar, even while being spoken from a broken body with so many salvaged parts.

Regardless of her cynicism, she thought that they could stop Thanos. She did not expect Gamora to give the location of the soul stone so freely. Maybe if her friends were being tortured; especially if harm were to befall the fool, Quill.

She did not expect Gamora's undoing to come through Nebula's own torture.

Thanos knew, though. He _knew_ that Gamora's weakness was her sister, yet Nebula did not realise until she saw her cry and plead with their _father_ for her freedom.

Nebula's lips trembled in a way that seemed more than just a phantom sensation of what she was before the mechanics replaced flesh. Tears fell unwillingly from her eyes as she turned away from the wounded stranger before her.

She could pretend that surviving in Thanos' new universe didn't unsettle her, but the pure anger she felt coiling within her chest would not be silenced.

She had not killed Thanos.

She could not save her sister.

The rage and loss at her failures pulsated from her body in waves, with so much force she could not spare a thought for the loss of half of the universe, even if she willed it.

* * *

 **I seem to be dabbling in anything but my main projects at the moment, oops. I wrote a collection of very small one-shots based on the reactions of those surviving after Thanos' snap in Infinity War. Please enjoy, or cry, like I did when writing them. xx**

 **I do not own anything, or gain anything from writing Marvel fanfiction, except for the practise and joy it brings me.**


	2. Steve

_Steve_

"Oh, _God_ ," Steve choked out as the weight of realisation dawned upon him.

They had failed.

They had _failed_ , and half the universe had been slaughtered.

Steve's eyes fell to what remained of Vision. His body had turned a sickly grey colour, and his forehead had been completely crushed, an empty shell of his friend and the stone that Thanos so desperately lusted.

He could hear cries all around him; through the peripheral of his bloodshot eyes, he saw Natasha kneel next to him, but he otherwise did not know who had survived. He almost couldn't bear to check. His friends, _his family_ , were torn apart more than he thought had already been possible.

Bruce had warned them of Thanos' goal. They _knew_ what was at stake, and now they had to live with the consequences of their failure. Steve replayed Bucky fall before his eyes, disappearing as though over a hundred years of friendship, love and experiences had never existed.

Tears cascaded down his blood and dirt stained cheeks as he wept freely, reaching a hand to Nat's shoulder as they desperately attempted to support each other through the pain.

Steve could feel himself being crushed underneath the agony of what was almost a tangible cry for help through the fields, across Earth and throughout the universe. It wasn't just his Bucky, his friends that he was sure had perished.

It was half of all living beings who had been annihilated, and it was the survivors who were now bound by grief and anguish, as though a thread connected every single remaining individual through time and space.

Steve's head fell into his hand and he sobbed, as the weight of the universe finally crushed him.


	3. Rocket

_Rocket_

"I am Groot," was the last thing he whispered before his limbs turned to ash and floated away in the breeze.

"No, no, no," Rocket cried, reaching towards the silhouette of his friend already fading into the space between them.

"Not again." Tears pricked within his eyes and he furiously brushed them away, unwilling to allow anyone to see his weakness, but unsure who was even left to bear witness.

After near unsuccessful attempts at composing himself, Rocket glanced hesitantly towards the place they had been protecting, where the Infinity Stone had been.

He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but the mangled, discarded body of a bot was not one of them. Those who remained mourned over their fallen friend, and Rocket's head fell downwards in a silent show of solidarity. Even for a creature without a strong moral compass, his mind did not linger over the credits the bots' body was sure to fetch.

Rocket was far too deep within the shock of losing his best friend, _again_ , that the only space within his mind was filled with the sudden fear for his other friends.

He clamped down his jaw to steel himself for every possible scenario that ran through his mind.

The part of him that dealt in self-preservation tried to distance himself from the others so that he didn't have to feel anything.

 _Don't think about those morons_ , Rocket thought harshly, but even as the notion crossed his mind he discarded it.

 _Those morons are your family, moron_. He sighed and dropped onto his backside, shoulders slumped in defeat.

Even if they had survived their failed plan to stop Thanos retrieving the reality stone, who knew if they had survived Thanos' purge.

 _Even if they had survived their failed plan to stop Thanos…_

Rocket looked towards Thor, who had stormed away from his discarded weapon and towards the nearest tree, which he quickly and effortlessly uprooted with his bare hands in a fit of rage.

Thor's howls filled the air as he destroyed and upturned tree after tree, and Rocket sighed as he turned his head towards the darkening sky.

 _If this super-charged God couldn't kill Thanos with a Thanos killing weapon, what hope did the others have,_ Rocket thought miserably.

* * *

 **Hello! Thank you for reading this far, and a huge thank you to FanGirlForever19 and The Brunette with Long Hair for your reviews! FanGirlForever19, that is a fantastic idea! Once I cycle through those Avengers who have survived, I will start working on our fallen heroes!**

 **Thank ya'll again and have a great weekend! xx**


	4. Rhodes

_Rhodes_

"Sam? Sam!" Rhodey called for what felt like the hundredth time, desperation crawling at his being. He saw Thanos throw his friend into the tree line with such force it set panic alight within his chest, the memories of his own fall at the forefront of his mind.

"Sam, where you at?" Was he too injured to cry out for help, to move towards him? Rhodey moved to use his suit to search for his Sam's heat signature when he heard cries and howls cut through the silence.

Running back towards the clearing where the thick of the fight had occurred against Thanos, Rhodey was met with Thor destroying trees left, right and centre, and less than half a dozen of his friends mourning the body of Vision.

"What happened?" Rhodey whispered. His fearful expression pleaded to his friends while each one could not bear to look up. Bruce had left his Hulkbuster suit and stood with his arm outstretched against a tree as though he needed it to help him stand. Nat and Cap were knelt over Vision, their sobs barely audible over Thor. The Racoon creature that had joined the fight with Thor was sat on the ground, staring into nothing. T'Challa's General, Okoye had disappeared through the tree line and back towards Wakanda, sparing him only a hard but tearful glance.

"Cap?" Rhodey pleaded, moving towards where Vision lay. He looked into the dead, white eyes of his friend and had to close his own against the sight.

It wasn't Steve that answered, but Nat, who stood slowly, clutching her injured side.

"He won, and he took half the universe with him." Rhodey shook his head, unbelieving.

"It's just… It's just us left?" Nat nodded her head slowly, her glance casting back towards Vision.

"Sam? He… He's…" Rhodey saw Steve let out another choked sob and took that as confirmation.

"No, it can't be… It can't…" He was so unwilling to believe the words, that if it wasn't for Nat taking his now bare hand and squeezing it tight, he would have continued to upturn the undergrowth to find Sam.

Nat's words lodged within his chest as he struggled and refused to swallow the truth of them. Every single one of them knew what was at stake, but the full reality of it had begun to settle like a thick cloud of smog that made it difficult to breathe.

Rhodey tried to wrack his brain to determine the appropriate action for a situation like this; however, the fact was, there was no situation like this and no way any training could have prepared them.

For the first time in his life, he was at a loss. He had no plan of attack, no course of action.

He turned to Nat, gripping her hand just as tight as she had.

"What the hell do we do now?"


	5. Okoye

_Okoye_

Okoye ran as though the strides would distract her from the physical and emotional pain coursing through each nerve within her body, but it just seemed to amplify it.

T'Challa had just disappeared before her eyes. The creature that the others had warned them about was more powerful than she could have anticipated, every move they made outsmarted and outmanoeuvred with absolute ease.

It had overpowered them, and it had achieved what the others had said it wanted. T'Challa was gone and if they were right, so were half their people, and half the universe. As Okoye made it through the tree line and towards the N17 section of the barrier, she saw those few left of their tribes wandering around, confused and crying out. Bodies litter the ground, faces of her friends and foes staring into the sky.

The alien was right; they certainly had blood to spare.

"General, what… Where are you going? Where is the King?" Okoye ignored M'Baku as she strode for Shuri's workshop, achingly aware that the next in line may not even be alive.

She wrestled with the fact that her short command had entailed the failure to protect not only two Kings, but T'Challa's life being lost twice.

"Okoye!" M'Baku stopped her mid-stride by standing before her and taking her shoulders underneath his hands. Shaking him off, she jutted her chin and turned her vision towards him.

"What has happened, Okoye? What has happened to everyone?" Okoye steeled herself against the prickling she felt within her eyes.

"The mad titan has won, M'Baku. T'Challa is dead. Half the universe is dead. We have failed Wakanda and we have failed our people." Okoye moved past M'Baku, who looked about the plains to the few dozen of his tribe who remained.

"Where are you going?" He called out to Okoye. Without a falter in her steps, she called back to him.

"To determine if Wakanda still has a ruler."

Okoye picked up her stride and focused every ounce of her focus on securing some semblance of a future for their nation.


	6. Bruce

_Bruce_

He could feel Hulk within him, but it wasn't rage or anger that he could feel. It was regret.

"It's too late for that now, you asshole." Bruce leant against the closest tree, attempting to hold himself upright. His body ached, but not with everything he had endured in what felt like just a few days. It ached for every opportunity the Hulk disregarded to push against the tide of Thanos' onslaught, for how many chances he had to help his friends, and for those friends who he had lost and who had survived.

Logic told him that even Hulk could not have given them what they needed, but logic was overruled by the raw emotions running through them both.

Hulk's regret was his own, and it was amplified through the space he shared with who remained of his friends.

How could they have believed they could have defeated Thanos? How could they have thought that they would win this time, against a foe so powerful that he could have defeated Hulk with his eyes closed?

Bruce leant further into the tree in which he found support; with both palms against bark and his body doubled over, his breathing became irregular and he struggled to find a grip on reality.

The Hulk stirred once more, but he didn't break the surface as he often did when Bruce's fear became overwhelming. Instead, he begun to feel more and more distant, an echo within his being, a distant memory that Bruce let slip instead of attempt to cling to.

Bruce couldn't help but feel a growing bitterness towards his counterpart despite the logic, a resentment which grew with each moment the Hulk slipped away. For so long, the Hulk had been a part of him when he so desperately tried to fight against their entwined existence; now, when he needed him the most, he had turned high tail and left Bruce to deal with the consequences of his failure.

Bruce had never felt such a chasm of disconnect between who he had been resigned to be, and who he was becoming without his say.

Where it should have torn a hole through his being, he just felt hollow.

Bruce had never felt emptier than he had at that moment.


	7. Natasha

_Natasha_

Rhodey's question rattled within Natasha's mind, while the sound of Steve's sobs and Thor's howls echoed through the thick air between them.

What _would_ they do now? They were broken, unlike they had been before. Natasha almost wished she could go back to a week ago, where the consequences of the accords were still the forefront of their minds, and even though they were broken, they were all alive.

Natasha glanced back to Steve and Vision, and letting go of Rhodey's hand, she limped over to the body of her fallen friend. Kneeling once more, she moved her fingers across the empty eyes of Vision. Whether it was by her own hand or someone else's, she had seen the way the life seeped from the pupil and faded away. She had seen the moment that any semblance of the person had died.

Before, it had never bothered her. Why should it have? She was trained to kill and not _feel_ , to move through life without attachments. Old habits die hard, but this time... There was something about the way that Vision's eyes stared up at them that she couldn't clear from her mind, as though Vision had a question of his own.

 _Why couldn't we stop him?_

But how could they have? He had thwarted them at each turn, throwing them across the Wakandan forest as though they were rag dolls. There was nothing that they could have done as they were. Maybe, if they hadn't been torn apart two years ago, but seperated... They were unorganised and unprepared.

The governments and citizens of the world had seen to that, and now the guilt would fall on those remaining Avengers who had given everything to protect them.

* * *

 **Thank ya'll for the reviews! I very much appreciate it, especially since it's been a while since updates. I'm hoping to have the remaining character chapters out before End Game is released, but we shall see how I track with it. Thanks again!**


	8. Clint

_Clint_

" _No!_ " Clint howled as he threw himself from the door of his home and towards his family.

He had been standing as far as his home detention anklet would allow, watching Laura carry Nathaniel through clearing after their usual afternoon walk. Cooper and Lila had been running in zig zag patterns ahead, chasing each other as they pretended to notch and shoot arrows at one another.

The rays from the dwindling sunlight had illuminated each of them, carressing their laughing figures, but within the time it took for Clint to blink, the scene before him had shifted horrifically.

He had heard Laura scream before he saw her, and it took him but a milisecond to refocus his vision on his family and begin sprinting down the porch, repercussions of his anklet be damned.

Laura's terrified expression was fixed on the space where Cooper had been, but shifted to Lila when she too begun to disintegrate as her brother had, without even a chance to cry out.

"Lila!" Laura ran forward in an attempt to catch her daughter, but there was nothing she could do as her fingers fell through the dust that floated with the breeze.

Clint cried out again, fear and panic crawling through his body.

 _His children! His beautiful , innocent children!_ His eyes fixated on Laura as he watched her expression shift from horror to confusion. Her knees buckled beneath her as though a great weight had descended upon her, and it took all Laura had to keep a firm hold on Nathaniel.

Clint closed the distance between them and caught her before they fell to the ground, clutching them protectively against his body.

"Clint..." Laura whispered, and he pulled away to watch his youngest son and the love of his life crumble before his eyes.

" _Laura! Nathaniel!_ " Clint bellowed as he desperately tried to hold onto any part of them both, but the more fervently he tried, the quicker their bodies fell into the breeze and dispersed into the retreating sunlight, leaving only darkness in its wake.

* * *

 **Out of any of these one shots I've written so far, this one probably makes me tear up the most. Enjoy... Or not...**


	9. Thor

_Thor_

Thor threw the last tree with such force that the seconds painfully crawled by as it fell from the sky and landed in a section of clearing already deserted by T'Challa's army. His whole body surged with rage and electricity, and Thor could feel the darkening storm clouds above Wakanda's shield, impatiently waiting for his command.

How could he have failed! He had _sworn_ that he would avenge the lives of his people, the life of Heimdell, and the life of his brother. Thor closed his eyes, real and otherwise, against the flashes of Loki's lifeless expression within his mind. Rage brimmed over the edges and he let out a gutteral howl, throwing his fists through yet another tree, obliterating the trunk within moments. The tree protested against the assualt and toppled, falling heavily into its neighbour.

"Thor." Bruce called, limping painfully to his friend. Thor barely heard Bruce over the trees bowing, but saw in his peripheral the approach.

"What, Banner"? Thor spat through clenched teeth, burying his fist halfway through the trunk of another tree.

"Thor, come on... You've got to stop... There's nothing more we could have done..." Bruce made sure to give him distance, the ferocity of Thor's current distruction not something that he could handle with the Hulk fading further and further away. A laugh broke from behind Thor's lips, hysterical and bitter.

" _There's nothing more we could have done?_ " Another laugh escaped Thor, the sound more manic than the first. "Where was the big green guy when we needed him, Banner? There was a lot more he could have done. There was more every single one of us could have done!"

Fists flew through what remained of the tree, and Bruce had to sidestep away from the remnants as it fell to Earth.

"I could have done more!" Thor roared across the trunk at Bruce, electricity sparking between his fingertips. "I swore I would kill him! I swore to Loki, and Heimdell, and the last of my kin that I would enact my revenge!"

The electricity coursed viscerally through him, but the heartbreak on Bruce's face caused a momentay lapse in his rage, and instead the sadness and horror washed over him, drowning him once more.

Without another word, and without the destruction of another Wakandan tree, Thor stormed towards the clearing, away from his friends and away from the amplification of his own guilt.


	10. Tony

_Tony_

Nebula's words hung in the air, but the desperate cries of Peter were all he could hear. Tony wasn't sure how long he had been curled over himself, half cradling the stab wound inflicted with his own weaponry, half fighting against the agony that tore through him, but he couldn't bring himself to move.

Logically, he knew that no matter what he had done or said to Peter to stop him from being here, it wouldn't have made a difference. He would have died here or on Earth, regardless...

But logic could not contain the fire that burned through his chest, ravaging every nerve within his body. Tony tried to take air in, but panic coursed through him and halted his attempts at breathing. Desperately he clawed at what he could reach of his chest and his throat, fighting a losing battle against his body and mind. The hitches in his breath became shorter and sharper, until his chest begun to prickle with pain and his vision blurred.

Tony felt himself tremble under the visceral reaction of his panic attack, his usual and effective methods of dealing with it not available to him.

He didn't have Pepper there to hold his hand and cradle him against her as he fought through it. He didn't have F.R.I.D.A.Y to play the voices of his mother, or to call Peter so that he could ask how his homework was going. He didn't have anyone, and the ache of lonliness only amplified the panic rising through his chest.

It took him several moments to register the cyborg before him, even after her strong fingers dug into his armour and he felt the sensation in his shoulders.

"This isn't the end. I will not allow it to be. Slow your breathing and stop panicking." Tony's breathing hitched into a sob, as he focused on her words. Glancing up to meet her pitch black eyes, Tony saw a fire raging within her expression, filling every mechanism and movement of her body.

"Come; we must leave this forsaken planet. I have a plan."


End file.
